Mystery Oil: What's Really Inside This Box?

My husband and I were given a countertop fryer for a wedding present. It's been a fabulous piece of equipment but it does have one drawback. The oil. It's wicked expensive and the fryer requires a great deal of it. To make the most of things we throw fry parties where friends and family bring veggies to tempura, french fries or fish to throw in and possibly candy bars. Hey, I never claimed it was a healthy event.

We're always on the lookout for inexpensive oil and this time of year with all the turkey frying that happens, peanut oil goes on sale every week — somewhere. So when we happened upon this green box (on sale for $18.99 at the time) we were excited and then suddenly confused. Can you guess why?

For the most part, the oil found in bulk quantities intended for turkey frying will be peanut oil. It has a smoke point between 320 and 450 depending on if it's refined or not. So when we checked out this package we suddenly realized we didn't really know what kind of oil it was. It didn't say!

After reading the (super) fine print, it was determined that the contents were cottonseed oil. What is cottonseed oil? It's exactly what it says it is. The oil extracted from the cotton plant and seeds. It has a smoke point of 420 degrees which is pretty perfect for frying most things.

This trip to the store was an adventure in making sure you read the label and is a good reminder that great packaging and marketing can lead you to buy anything if you don't have your super sleuth detective glasses on. Have you ever purchased something, got it home and realized it wasn't what you thought it was?

(Image: Sarah Rae Trover)

Comments (12)

Personally I'd be cautious about cottonseed oil and check it out further--as a knitter I know that cotton is a heavily treated plant. Does anyone know if the refining process strips away the chemicals present in or on the plant?

Cotton seed oil is just another form of vegetable oil but it actually has some health benefits. This article will explain....
http://www.purematters.com/herbs-supplements/c/cotton

That was certainly an interesting series of pages, however they do not address my primary concern. I'm not trying to be contentious, I'm really interested in the answer. I'm not reassured on the issue of if chemicals used to treat the plants are eliminated in the refining process. I believe that heating liquids often concentrates chemicals as evaporation occurs. I am not qualified to make any judgements, I'm
curious....

I use peanut oil for frying if lard isn't available. most of my recipes don't get anywhere close to 400, so the extra high smoke point isn't worth the extra cash.

Every time I go to Popeye's for fried chicken (my husband is semi-addicted), I always toss any of the so-called "honey" away. If you read the fine print, it says "honey" in big letters and "sauce" in smaller ones -- it's mostly made with high-fructose corn syrup with honey flavoring. Blech!

@nionon - I would speculate that, like most other seed crops, they seeds are washed before processing, so a fair amount of chemical residue on the surface of them will be removed. Also, since the seeds are pressed to extract the oil and the husks don't actually make it into the product, that will reduce the amount of contamination as well.

HOWEVER

after reading this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottonseed_oil and following the Gossypol link, I'd have serious questions about consuming cottonseed oil at all. It sounds like it's not really fit for human consumption without some serious post-processing.

Finally, I have to say though that debating the health implications of which oil you use to deep fry your food is kinda like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. You've got bigger health concerns going on.

Another warning about cottonseed oil: I started getting a rash on my upper lip every time I ate certain fast food items. I called a fast food HQ and spoke to a nutritionist who told me cheaper vegetable oil blends, as used in many fast food restaurant, contained largely cottonseed oil, because of how cheap it was and that it wasn't usually for people to be irritated by it.

I have been frying turkeys for about 8 years and I have been using soybean oil. I get it at samsclub for about $14. Everybody prefers it to peanut oil. I used Peanut oil one year, and was asked to change back.

i agree with the comment above. that or check your local restaurant supply store (because walmart/sams is an evil empire)

I don't understand - are people deep frying entire turkeys?? I thought the US Thanksgiving/Christmas tradition was roast turkey?

RosieGreenie - oh yeah, deep frying turkeys is a big thing, especially in parts of the country where the weather is likely to cooperate and be pleasant.

it sounds like you have a frying party to use up as much of the oil as you can because then you just throw it out & start fresh next time? why not reuse the oil? i'm sure you can find *some* kind of container. and not to gross you out (but it will), we had a fryer when i was growing up. we just put the metal lid on it & put it back in the basement until next time my mom wanted to fry something. five of us kids, all still alive decades later.